MONTE LAKE
fishing reports
Monte Lake is a popular fishing lake year-round, with some kokanee reaching three pounds. Learn more about Monte Lake here.
may 20, 2021
Today was a beautiful day to get out on the water! Before I headed out I messaged a couple friends with an open invitation to meet me at the lake.
I got there first and started on the north end of the lake, where the fish were marking very deep in the 50 to 100 foot range. Lots of them.
After my recent success at Peter Hope Lake, I tried jigging the same Williams wobbler with a chironomid. But the fish weren't taking the bite today and it was hard to keep the boat zeroed in with the wind gusting.
I put my jigging rod away, and pulled out the trolling rods. I trolled right up the middle of the north end and put the downriggers down to 65 feet. I was trying out my new Chromes Smile blade spinners. I tipped them with my scented shoe peg corn and they were a success!
Between 10:00 and 11:30 a.m. I put my limit in the boat and lost 4 others. By the time my friend arrived at the lake, I had just caught my last fish. I picked him up and we headed out on the water. He brought some very good looking pink flies that he wanted to try behind his dodger. We got the lines back down to 65 feet and he was soon into a kokanee on the pink fly!
Between 11:45 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. my buddy managed to catch his limit of kokanee on the pink fly, and lost 5 others. All of the fish were caught between 60 - 85 feet.
It's strange that the chironomid set up didn't work today because all of the kokanee I caught were full of chironomids. I am definitely going to try trolling my kokanee flies behind a dodger next time I go to Peter Hope Lake!
the Strategy
Rod one: A Gibbs Dogtail Dodger 14 inches of leader and a Chromes Smile Blade spinner tipped with shoepeg corn scented with garlic and anise oil
Rod two: A Teton Dodger with 14 inches of leader to a pink Fly
Other : Both green and pink Chromes Smile Blade Spinners were producing.
THE CATCH
Fishing with a friend today and we both got our limits! The new Chromes Smile blades are working great and pink kokanee flies were also producing lots of fish!
kokanee: 10
rainbows: 0
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
APRIL 15, 2021
It was so nice to have this beautiful weather back! Being out on the boat on Monte Lake today was very relaxing.
I started out fishing the north east corner of the lake and marked a few fish right away, but as I moved south on the east side of the lake the marks were becoming fewer.
I looped back and trolled back and forth on the north end for about 45 minutes. I marked a few fish from 15 to 25 feet and caught one kokanee at 18 feet.
When I find fish I usually stay on them, but I was curious about the south end. I spent about 2.5 hours trolling up the west side of the lake all the way to the south end. This proved to be nothing more than a relaxing boat ride. I marked a few fish at the north west side of the lake at 50 feet, after that I marked only four fish all the way to the south end of the lake.
I think if I had stayed on the north end of the lake I may have caught more. I talked to a fisher who was jigging the north west end of the lake using a Williams wobbler with 10 inches of leader to a black and red chironomid at about 50 feet deep. He said he had caught 3 kokanee over the course of 4.5 hours, all on the north end.
the Strategy
Rod one: A Gibbs Dogtail Dodger 16 inches of leader and a pink chromes single spinner tipped with shoepeg corn scented with garlic and anise oil
Rod two: A Macks bling blade with 16 inches of leader to a pink Chromes spinner tipped with shoepeg corn scented with garlic and anise oil
THE CATCH
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
Just the one fish today. Most of the fish were hanging out on the north end of the lake
kokanee: 1
rainbows: 0
February 25, 2021
It was a very windy day today! My ice anchors got pushed to their limits and at one point I had to chase my sled half way across the lake. Pro tip: anchor your sled as well as your tent on days where the ice is slick and the wind is blowing.
I arrived at the lake at 9:30am and fished until 2:00pm. There was a good number of fish marking between 40 to 100 feet.
I put the camera down to 40 feet and started chasing marks on my fish finder. I couldn't get anything interested in my gear while chasing them at depths. A school came in at 20 feet and I quickly reeled up and got a bite immediately. I pulled the camera up to 20 feet and watched as the school was interested but not aggressively biting. I changed my gear to a pink spoon tipped with meal worm and this seemed to drive them nuts. Unfortunately the schools at 20 feet only came in every hour or so and the ones marking deeper wouldn't bite.
I caught the skinniest kokanee that I have seen yet. He measured 18.5 inches long but only weighed 1.1lbs.
the Strategy
Set up one: A Gibbs Dogtail Dodger 12 inches of leader and a small weighted hook tipped with shoepeg corn scented with garlic and anise oil
Set up two: A simple pink and purple spoon.
THE CATCH
PHOTO GALLERY
click to enlarge
I caught 2 and lost 2 and had a couple of bites
kokanee: 2
rainbows: 0
Fishing report from readers
february 15, 2021
Good fishing reports at Monte Lake coming in from a reader! After reading about the kokanee lurking in the top 10ft at Stump Lake, a Chrome Catchers reader decided to try this approach at Monte Lake and had three fish on the ice in the first 15 minutes!
Having any success out there on the ice? Drop us a line and tell us about it!
